Brad Rantayy
MIRI,Nov 10: The Sarawak Karate Championship 0pen for Age 14, Cadet and Junior aims to unearth and groom new talents to represent Sarawak in SUKMA 2020 will be held in Miri Indoor Stadium here.
The championship will be held for two consecutive days from November 23 to 24.
According to Persatuan Karate Goshin-Ryu Sarawak president Suryati Mahadan, the associate hoped that the competition may be a platform to discover and nurture karate talents in Sarawak.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Karate head coach Al-Harir Muhammed said Sarawak hoped to get at least one gold medal in Karate event for SUKMA 2020.
“For SUKMA 2020, we are targeting to obtain at least one gold medal in the Karate event. We seeing this platform as the best venue to scout new talents in the State,” he said.
The competition is a collaboration between Persatuan Karate Goshin-Ryu Negeri Sarawak and Sarawak Karate Association. It is also supported by Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Sarawak as well as the Sarawak Sports Corporation.
Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Ministry gave its support to promote sports tourism in conjunction with Visit Sarawak 2019.
Registration for the competition will be held on Nov 22 at Mega Hotel, Miri. Â Team Managers’ Meeting and Referees briefing will also be held on the same day.
The championship will include kumite and kata for both Solo and Team events.
The qualifying age for the championship is from 10 to 17 years old. Â The categories are U12 Category for those aged between 10 to 11;Â U14 Category for those age between 12 to 13; Cadet Category for those aged 14 to 15 and Junior Category for the athletes of age between 16 to 17.
Invitations to take part have been extended to all Karate associations in Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan, Penang, West Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Kalimantan and the Philippines.
Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Sarawak Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah will grace at the event on November 23 at 10am at Miri Indoor Stadium.
In SUKMA 2016, Sarawak karate team secured one silver.  — DayakDaily